This story about a young girl and her best friend takes some startling political and emotional turns.
Okja is now streaming on Netflix and playing in select iPic theaters In New York and Los Angeles.
There is no other filmmaker working today like Bong Joon Ho. Through his past efforts, the South Korean writer and director has managed to deliver stories on a consistent basis that are often equal parts entertaining action adventures and social political satires. It’s not just that very few filmmakers have ever managed to so successfully walk the kind of chaotic tonal tightrope than Joon Ho has with say 2006’s The Host or 2014’s Snowpiercer, but very few filmmakers would ever dare try to. There’s a magic at the heart of each of Joon Ho’s films for that very reason, though, which makes it hard not to get caught up in the sheer talent and enthusiasm that he brings to each and every single one of his movies, and his latest film, Okja, is no exception.
The movie begins in an alternate version of our own world, circa 2007, when the Mirando Corporation claims to have discovered a new breed of “super pig." It will provide more meat to society than any other animal in the world, while also making the smallest impact on the environment. Led by Tilda Swinton’s always-smiling and villainous Lucy Mirando, the corporation claims that in order to breed enough of the super pigs naturally, they will begin by giving one super pig to ten different farmers around the world, who will have ten years to help their pig grow as big as it can possibly get, and whichever farmer grows the biggest pig will be selected as the grand prize winner.
So cut to ten years later, in the mountains of South Korea and a young girl named Mija (An Seo Hyun) is living with Okja, the titular super pig whom her grandfather was originally given, and who also happens to be her best friend. Unfortunately, their time together is cut short by the arrival of Johnny Wilcox (Jake Gyllenhaal, in one of the genuinely weirdest and strangely entertaining performances I've ever seen), a mustachioed, jean short-wearing TV personality and “animal lover” who’s also the spokesperson for the Mirando super pig contest. He quickly names Okja to be the biggest super pig of them all, and takes her away to New York, where she will be killed and her food will then be processed to be eaten by citizens everywhere. Of course, Mija won’t stand for this, and quickly races after Okja and the Mirando Corporation to save her best friend before it’s too late.
Along the way, Mija makes friends with the Animal Liberation Forces, led by Paul Dano’s Jay, who want to use Okja to infiltrate the underbelly of Mirando’s food-processing warehouses and expose them to the world. The film’s introduction of the A.L.F. centers entirely around a chase sequence about one-third of the way through its runtime that’s set in the streets of Seoul. It is one of the most well-staged, paced, and exciting car chases I’ve seen in a movie in a very long time. It works perfectly at introducing the A.L.F. as a well-meaning but flawed organization who fit in well with the morally-compromised world Joon Ho brings to light throughout.
While the early festival reviews for Okja had frequently tagged it as being nothing more than Bong Joon Ho’s personal version of E.T., merely calling it that would be to sell a much different movie than Okja is. It’s a tonal combination cocktail that has elements taken from E.T., Robert Kenner’s Food, Inc., and thanks to Swinton’s image-obsessed, Cruella de Vil-like Lucy Mirando, 101 Dalmations.
What that means is throughout its nearly two-hour runtime, Okja manages to include idyllic childlike moments between Okja and Mija in the hills around her grandfather’s farm, jaw-dropping action sequences, almost blinding moments of white hot satire, and scenes inside of slaughterhouses that are so starkly violent and graphic they feel more at home in a horror film. That’s a tough variety of tones for even Joon Ho to maneuver his way through. Because of that, the best thing I can say -- and also the biggest criticism I can make -- about Okja is that he manages to still balance it all perfectly for about 80% of the film’s runtime.
Across the board, all of the performances are calculated and believable (standouts include Dano, An Seo Hyun, and Lily Collins as a red-haired A.L.F. member). The story occasionally takes detours that feel especially out of nowhere and unnecessary, and there’s a twist/reveal that’s built up to throughout that doesn’t land nearly as well as Joon Ho wants. To say which moments in specific don’t work would be to spoil too much of the film, but they make Okja hard to recommend without a small list of caveats, and also make the film’s targeted demographic that much harder to nail down. The good part is that all of these flaws merely soften the impact of what is still one of Joon Ho’s most opinionated, strange, heartwarming, and entertaining films to date.
The Verdict
Okja has its fair share of pacing and tonal issues, but is otherwise so technically well-crafted and entertaining throughout that it’s still one of this season’s most worthwhile endeavors. (It also has maybe the best after-credits scene of any movie this year.)
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